The present invention relates to interconnection of pairs of small coaxial conductors to terminals of electrical circuits and particularly relates to connecting many very small coaxial conductor pairs to closely spaced conductor terminals located in a planar array on a printed circuit.
It has previously been known to arrange small conductors to extend parallel across an opening such as a slot defined in a flex circuit substrate and oriented transverse to the length of the parallel conductors, in order to facilitate connecting the conductors electrically to other conductors. Forming such connections quickly and dependably, however, has not been easy to accomplish.
It has previously been known, as is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/914,858, assigned to the assignee of the present application, to arrange and hold multiple individual conductors of a cable in a desired sequence for connection to an array of terminals, with the conductors extending across an opening defined in a transfer frame formed of a thin layer of a dielectric material such as is used as a substrate of a printed circuit board. Such a transfer frame is removed from the conductors after they have been electrically connected and mechanically fastened to terminals of an array. Using the prior art, however, it has been difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes impossible, depending on the type of conductors in the cable involved, to maintain the location of each individual conductor accurately enough to make it possible to connect the conductors electrically, in a single, mass-termination operation to an array of small terminals as may be provided on a printed circuit with close conductor and terminal spacing. While it is possible to connect such conductors one-by-one to terminals arrayed on a printed circuit board or otherwise, such a procedure is difficult, tedious, and undesirably time-consuming.
One source of difficulty in connecting flex circuits to printed circuit boards in the past has been that it has been difficult or impossible to determine whether adequate fusion of solder has taken place to create a secure electrical and mechanical connection.
Another source of difficulty has been the problem of controlling heat transfer to accomplish necessary heating in some places without overheating occurring in other places.
What is needed, then, is an improved connector, for facilitating the secure and rapid connection of large numbers of coaxial conductor pairs as are present in some flexible cables, keeping the individual coaxial conductor pairs in order and aligned with one another securely and accurately enough to enable connection of the cable to an electronic circuit assembly using mass termination procedures, and occupying a minimum amount of space on the electronic circuit assembly to which connection is being made.